As much as you would not have it happen, a lot of your non-spam emails invariably land into the spam folder. Here are some tips that will help your emails be on top of the inbox.

1. Follow the CAN-SPAM Act

The use of electronic messaging for commercial prospects must comply with the key requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act. There are severe penalties for non-compliance. Some avoidable issues include:

Misleading or false header information

Deception in subject lines

Not mentioning away physical location to recipients

Hiding the unsubscribing option

Not honoring opt-out requests

2. Avoid Trigger Words

There is no unique list of trigger words that you can safely avoid. Also, it cannot be said with certainty that emails will land up in spam boxes simply because there is a trigger word in it.

The key here is to try and stay out of promotions and commercial advertisements. Words and phrases that are commonly found in promotional emails need to be avoided.

3. Send the text version for HTML emails

Many emails land in spam folders because of the HTML codes they use. This can be easily prevented by sending a text version of the email.

Also, you have things covered if the recipient is not equipped to read HTML emails.

4. Permission marketing works

Permission marketing was first coined by Seth Godin. The fundamental premise of this technique is to take the permission of your customers to allow you to email them.

You can push it a little further. When they subscribe to your emails, go ahead and ask them to place you on the whitelist.

5. Install and apply spam checkers

It is always worthwhile to install and use a genuine spam checking filter before you send out those emails.

These filters do some routine checks and let you know if your email could have a potential element of spam.

6. Avoid blacklists

Once your email server has been placed on a blacklist, you will find it extremely difficult to send email reliably, especially to people who are new in your list.

There are a number of free services that help you ascertain if your email server has been placed on a blacklist.

If you are indeed on a blacklist, you should look to follow up with the website that blacklisted you.

7. Be proportionate with text and image

Best email practices do not warrant any use of images at all. If you must include images, follow these tips:

Do not go for emails that are only images

It is better to go for a couple of lines for every graphic image

Well-optimized images are better than raw files

Go for well-formatted HTML images

8. Steer out of spam traps

Spam traps are those email addresses that have been flagged ‘non-human’ by ISPs. You should avoid using a spam trap email in the mailing list. Use a process for opting in and do not buy from email brokers.